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My husband and I are fostering our first litter of puppies for the rescue organization we volunteer for. They're now almost 11 weeks old, and we still have 4 of them with us. They will probably be the first of more puppy fosters -- it's been a time-consuming but very rewarding experience.

Our yard isn't fenced, and since we don't expect to be able to fence it in the foreseeable future, we got an outdoor kennel for these and future foster puppies (and also probably some grown dogs). There was sparse grass where we placed the kennel, but it's long gone. And with rain forecast for later this week, the dirt is going to turn to mud.

The kennel is against the house with the house forming one of the walls, and it's in shade for all but about 3 hours during the day.

From my reading, it looks like these are some ground materials used for dog kennels:

Concrete

Patio pavers

Pea gravel

Mulch

Moss (maybe less common, but I think I read about it as an option)

We don't want concrete or patio pavers. The puppies love to roll in grass, but since grass had a short lifespan in the kennel, I like the idea of moss. Irish moss sounded like a good choice. Does anyone have experience with moss and puppies?

I'd like to learn about moss as an option, but since we need something now, we'll probably have to leave it off the list until a time when the kennel isn't needed and we can plant something there. So, that brings us to pea gravel and/or mulch. What are your thoughts on these for puppies in particular? I'm leaning towards mulch (making sure that it doesn't contain any cocoa) with perhaps pea gravel around the perimeter of the kennel because the puppies like to dig.

I named it as a possibility in my first post, but I've been reading more about it, and apparently some dogs eat it and can die from ingesting it. If you know that your dogs won't eat it, it sounds like a good option, but when you have different dogs coming and going, especially puppies, I'm thinking that it might not be such a good idea now. And apparently some dogs and puppies eat mulch too.

So, I'm looking at other options now. The puppies we have could be adopted at any time. We might just leave the kennel as is for now and plant moss later, but I'd like to find out if there's any option that would work for us now.

but when you have different dogs coming and going, especially puppies, I'm thinking that it might not be such a good idea now. And apparently some dogs and puppies eat mulch too.

If you do end up with different dogs coming and going, the top priority has to be hygiene. You have to be able to clean thoroughly and disinfect completely. And that's the trouble with anything that isn't concrete or some sort of sealed/nonporous surface - you can't completely disinfect. You can only stop easily contagious diseases/ailments being passed on by vigilance and a lot of cleaning.

I hate concrete with an abiding passion - it's hard on skin and very unforgiving in general. BUT you can clean and disinfect it and it can't be eaten. There is something to be said for that especially if you're going to have a constantly revolving group of boarders.

I would look into rubber cow mats but make sure have cover over one area so shaded all day so not get hot feet. Can bleach it, wash it, has cushion so not hard on feet. You can also pull them from kennel area to clean as this way everything is washed away from kennel area so disease cannot be left behind. Lime underneath the mats every time switch out new batch as with disinfecting.Make sure all is slightly slanted away so no standing water after rain. Will not be cheap but will last and can be cut to fit.

You can also between doggies Bleach the area! As for puppies that eat rocks .... Pea gravel is so small it just pass thru in their poo! I had a Cocker that loved to eat rocks! After his 2nd operation by his 1st owners...they gave up & gave him to me. [BTW he was a house dog! Not a yard or Kennel dog.] Any way I had him 18 months in that time he had no problems eating & passing the pea gravel!! And IF my other dogs [32 & Countless puppies] Ate it .... well I never knew since they never had health problems.

If you have a tractor supply or similar store nearby I would go pick up some horse stall mats. Easy to clean, safe for rough-housing, will not promote bacterial growth and I doubt a puppy could eat it.

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